Musicheads want to know which artist first made you aware that music could be political or social commentary?

U2 and Midnight Oil

I am going to say The Beatles and John Lennon. I was 14 in 1979 and started listening to KQRS because that what what the older kids were listening to. Pink Floyd's The Wall had just come out and everyone I knew owned it. I had some big headphones and listened to KQ's Saturday night six pack every week. They would play 6 complete albums from midnight to 4am. Any way, The lyrics to Revolution, and Imagine are here.
Imagine
Revolution
For me the revolution was at first mostly about being a teenager. You gotta fight for your right to party(beastie boys). I understood what he was saying more a few years later. I didn't see the wall movie untill a few years later. The line "hey teachers leave those kids alone" resonated with my teenage brain.
Anotherbrickinthewall I was a rebel without a cause.

1st?..either The Beatles..or maybe moreso Rush and to some extent Pink Floyd.

Probably the most overtly would be artists like System of a Down and Kevin Gilbert especially.

Here's one good example:

GOODNESS GRACIOUS

Goodness gracious, is there nothing left to say?
When the ones that get to keep looking are the ones that look away
It's pabulum for the sleepers in the cult of brighter days

Goodness gracious, at the mercy of the crooks
We're broke and stroking vegetables and there's way too many cooks
In every pot a pink slip, in every mouth a hook

Goodness gracious, i'm not listening anymore
'Cause the spooks are in the white house and they've justified a war
So wake me when they notify we're gonna fight some more

Goodness gracious, not many people care
Concern is getting scarcer, true compassion really rare
I can see it on our faces, i can feel it in the air
Goodness gracious me

Goodness gracious, my generation's lost
They burned down all our bridges before we had a chance to cross
Is it the winter of our discontent or just an early frost?

Goodness gracious, of apathy i sing
The babyboomers had it all and wasted everything
Now recess is almost over and they won't get off the swing

Goodness gracious, we came in at the end
No sex that isn't dangerous, no money left to spend
We're the cleanup crew for parties we were too young to attend
Goodness gracious me [repeat]

Goodness gracious my grandma used to say
The world's a scary place now, things were different in her day
What horrors will be commonplace when my hair starts to grey?

I had another Idea. (Mr. Self Indulgent). Its 40 years after The Beatles "Revolution" (1968). Was there a revolution? I would say maybe. A Republican is president. America is at war. Here is a link to Instant Karma: the 2007 Amnesty Inernational Album for Darfour.
Instant_Karma
Some good songs by REM, U2, Jack Johnson, Raveonettes, The Cure, Jakob Dylan, MIA, Widespread Panic and more on i Tunes. Stick it to the Man, don't let him get you down.

It's funny that Tim said Jakob Dylan; I was going to say Bob Dylan.

You know this is one of those things where I wish that I could give a cool answer like.... The MC5 or The Stooges...... or even The Dead Kennedy's.... but honestly it was Queensryche.

'Who was the artist to first make you aware that music could have a political or social dimension?'
Hazel Dickens, Phil Ochs, Judy Collins, Irish tradition of emigration songs

Prince - "Ronnie Talk to Russia" from Controversy. I'm sure I heard other political songs prior to this but this was the first one that I really made me think about politics and music.

Ronnie Talk To Russia, there's a great Prince song. I wish Prince would make more stands like that today, though his latest 3121 showed some signs of it.

The first...I think it was The Fugees or KRS-ONE. But that started me down a path of social conscious musicians.

Favorites - James Brown, Nas, Tracey Chapman, Rage Against the Machine, Lauryn Hill (favorite ever!), Prince, Mos Def, Talib Kweli, Stevie Wonder...I could go on forever! Thanks for starting this discussion!

Oh Bill, there is also Prince's song "Dr. Mr. Man" off of his Musicology album. Great song!

Live

I remember growing up the first song I was really aware of like that were Billy Joel's Allentown and We Didn't Start the Fire. Other good songs I remember from back then came from U2, John Lenon, Neil Young...

Now my favorite has to be Bright Eyes - When the President Talks to God. If you haven't seen that one yet, check out the video.

Fun question, Bill. For me, that would probably be Cat Stevens, with "Where do the Children Play?" I first heard the song when I was taking a theater course at the Pittsburgh Public Playhouse and the director of our show wanted to incorporate it into a performance we were doing. Around the same time, I remember hearing Billy Joel's Allentown and thinking that it music was a powerful way to convey a social/political message.

A couple of years later, a college friend got me hooked on Phil Ochs and I began to explore politics in music a lot more seriously.

I guess it was The Beatles but I know I heard Bob Dylan around there too. I was very young when the Beatles began but they didn't start making political noise for a few years after that and by then I knew who they were. My sister is 3-1/2 years older and she was always listening to them.

The Clash really brought it all into focus for me. I had heard protest music before but I think I was to young to really care or get it.

Bob Dylan/Joan Baez/Peter Paul and Mary

I'm right with you Beth H....The Clash made sence of it all for me as well. It's nice to see Mick Jones and his new band Carbon/Silicon are making music of some social importance!

Jeff, I think "Something in the Air" by Thunderclap Newman is a brilliant song!

Laura, I like your pick by Bright Eyes. I realized how gifted he is when he performed at X-Cel Energy Center in 2004 with Bruce Springsteen & REM & Neil Young and didn't seem the least bit intimidated by it!

This is a really good question, Bill.

I have a different sort of realization...Growing up I thought only the brashest or biggest could say something social/political to say. Think Marvin, The Beatles, The Clash, Cash and even Elvis. As far as folk goes, I knew most of the protest music as "the past."

Then a band that wasn't punking the scene actually put forth something political. The Human League. Yeah, really. "The Lebanon" wasn't one of their sweeter singles, but I bought it, and I was like, "Oh, my god. Synth stars can actually write about their own political views. SWEET. The future!"

Phil Collins and Don Henley

Bob Dylan and Peter, Paul and Mary, but John Lennon had the biggest impact.

Mr Self Indulgent(Me) has 3 more Ideas. Think Globally, act locally.
1 Billy Bragg at South by Southwest this year said Something interesting. George Bush is the most powerful man in the world. His decisions affect everyone on the planet, and only about 50% of Americans vote. So Braggs Idea was to tell Americans to vote in November 2008. I think the Idea is partly that there are a majority of the non voters would vote Democrat(Obama/Clinton).
2 Obama is on Gather.com and likes Miles Davis. So if you add Miles to your profile you can find his profile. Miles was the Birth of the Cool. So Obama is too, maybe.
3 I heard Crosby Stills Nash, and Young's song "Ohio" on the radio today. Tin Soldiers and Nixons coming, We're finally on our own, This Summer I hear the Drumming, Four dead in Ohio. About the Kent State Massacre of four protesters by the National Guard may 4th, 1970.
Kent State Wiki
Thats 3 isn't it. The Thing that makes me wonder is that that the "lets have a war" mentality is still around 40 years later. The war on Drugs hasn't been working, and the war in Iraq isn't working very well either. Nixon and his people(the MAN) was dishonest, paranoid about The hippies( John Lennon was investigated by the FBI, and killed by a fan in 1980), and The Bush administration shares a lot of the same Ideas and methods.
The U.S vs John Lennon Wiki

Thinking about this question long and hard and I guess I'd have to say "Revolution" by the Beatles was the first song I heard with a political bent. Of course, the granddaddies for me are still Woodie Guthrie and Pete Seeger, but I didn't learn about them until much later in life.

It makes me wonder about some of the songs we used to sing in grade school. We had music classes and we'd sing folk songs and little ditties. I wonder if they snuck any of the old protest songs in and we just didn't know it. All I remember is singing about poor "Don Gato", the cat that received a love letter from his love and he jumped for joy and fell off the roof, breaking his whiskers, ribs and solar plexus and eventually died. That song was quite the downer. And who would have ever thought to use the words "solar plexus" in a song?

I don't remember. I've always been attracted to artists that make political or meaningful statements in some way. My music collection could be called "The Statement," instead of the sprawling display of conspicuous consumption it is. :)

Showing my age, but Sam Cooke, "A Change is Gonna Come".

For many of us, our first exposure to political music was most likely when we sang Guthrie's "This Land is Your Land" in grade school. I would suspect most of us didn't know the political nature of the song at the time, however. I suspect even some of the teachers who had us sing the song also didn't fully grasp the message of that song.

I probably first became aware of political/social songs, like many people, through listening to The Beatles and/or solo Lennon...because that's all I listened to for a while once I graduated from "kid music" to "real music." Even when you're young, the message of "Imagine" is a pretty easy to understand.

I would also have to say "Kick out the Jams" by the MC5, Chicago, 1968 in Lincoln Park.

the clash were definately the first to hit me with the political edge. their songs all about about social classes, police brutality, fighting for what you believe.... all that good stuff. there's a great interview of them on tv i think where the talk show host asks why they write about what they do, and to this joe strummer said:

"there are so many songs out there about love, and all that stuff..... but i think the subject's taken. its about time we write about something real."

this is a lyric from my favorite clash song, white riot-

White riot - I wanna riot
White riot - a riot of my own
White riot - I wanna riot
White riot - a riot of my own
All the power's in the hands
Of people rich enough to buy it

Are you taking over
or are you taking orders?
Are you going backwards
Or are you going forwards?

white riot is often thought to be a white supremacist song, but it's actually about how white youth need to fight for what they want, like the black panthers.

I think Jimi Hendrix did it best with his version of "Star Spangled Banner" but I did'nt quite comprehend it at the age of three. For me it was Dead Kennedy's followed up by The Clash in 83- wow! did I just "date" myself????

Public Enemy. How groundbreaking! But a surprise social commentary I heard in music was from Kate Bush. "The Dreaming" is just lyrically amazing- a commentary on
Aborigine abuse. Most ppl know her song "this woman's work" but The Dreaming is just the best.

"bang! goes another kang
On the bonnet of the van.
See the light ram through the gaps in the land.
Many an aborigines mistaken for a tree
til you near him on the motorway
And the tree begin to breathe.
See the light ram through the gaps in the landine abuse."

The Clash became very big in America in 82 with the release of Combat Rock. My favorite album of theirs is 1977's The Clash. Their best might be London Calling, 1979. There are several Clash Documentaries available on Net Flix. They did revolutionize music around the world. Wikipedia has an article about White Riot. The Clash opened the doors to Americans for Reggae, Rap/Hip Hop, Punk, and World Music. Heres some of the lyrics of Grandmaster Flash's "The Message" (1982) which was on the Grand Theft Auto Vice City sound track(2002).
Don't push me cause I'm close to the Edge, I'm trying not to lose my head, It's like a jungle sometimes, it makes me wonder how I keep from going under. Rat's in the front room, Roaches in the back, junkie's in the alley with a baseball bat, I tried to get away, but I couldn't get far, Cause the man with the tow- truck reposesed my car. A child is born with no state of mind, Blind to the ways of mankind, God is smiling on you, but he's frowning too, cause only god knows what you go through, you grow in the ghetto, living second rate, And your eye's will sing a song of deep hate, The places where you stay and where you play, looks like one great big alley way, You admie all the number book takers, Thugs, pimps, pushers, and the big money makers, Driving big cars, spending twenties and tens, And you want to grow up to be just like them. NWA (DR DRE, Ice Cube)1988 "staight outta Compton" pioneered Gangsta Rap( Public Enemy, Tupac, Snoop Dogg, 50 Cent) the most popular best selling music today, since 2001 10 acts have sold more than 15 million records: Nickelback, Toby Keith, Shania Twain,Tim Mcgraw, Norah Jones, Josh Groban, Linkin Park, 50 Cent, Eminem, and Nelly.
Bob Marley's "Redemption song", and "Stand up for your Rights", "I Shot the Sheriff". Lyricsfreak.com, and Wikipedia have tons of info on all these artists.

Thunderclap Newman

Joan Baez, Buffy St. Marie and Marvin Gaye's "What's Goin On"

When I was in 5th Grade I saw U2's music video for One.... I started listening a lot closer to lyrics after that.

Well, dating myself...I remember my 3rd grade teacher playing Peter, Paul and Mary versions of Dylan songs (Blowin' in the Wind,) and Dylan himself (The Times They Are A-Changin'), and us kids reciting some of the lyrics.

But there were so many more... It wasn't long before I was aware of lots more Dylan songs, and soon songs by Creedence (Fortunate Son), Country Joe and The Fish (I Feel Like I'm Fixin' To Die Rag), Buffalo Springfield's "For What It's Worth", and perhaps the one with the most emotional impact, CSNY's "Ohio", released right after the Kent State Massacre:

"Tin soldiers and Nixon's coming, we're finally on our own.
This summer I hear the drumming, four dead in Ohio.
Gotta get down to it, soldiers are cutting us down. Should have been done long ago.
What if you knew her and found her dead on the ground?
How can you run when you know?"

Maybe I'm missing it, but it doesn't seem like there is as much commentary in today's music. But it was an important influence in my youth, and beyond.

U2- Under a Blood Red Sky